ISLAMABAD: A meeting of the annual wheat planning and productivity enhancement programme took place on Wednesday to devise a production strategy ahead of the wheat-sowing season.

According to Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) Member for Plant Sciences Division Dr Ahmad Bakhsh Mahar, Pakistan enjoys a wheat surplus for which the credit goes to researchers.

Research has enabled the country’s farmers to increase their yields from 863 kilograms per hectare in 1965 to 2,753kg per hectare in 2016, said Dr Nadeem Amjad, acting chairman of PARC.

The cropping systems in Pakistan represent the diverse and varying agro-ecological conditions. But this diversity is also posing a challenge to wheat researchers to make the wheat crop not only

competitive but also profitable, according to

wheat experts from the US Department of Agriculture, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) and International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA).

Published in Dawn October 27th, 2016